Minimizing Economic Damages - Why Defense Attorneys MUST present Economic Damage Estimates to a Jury

The attorney blogger John Day at Day on Torts, http://www.dayontorts.com/, reports on wonderful article written by trial consultants ( http://www.trialbehavior.com/articles/Strategies%20for%20Minimizing%20Damages.htm) that lays out the Pros and Cons of presenting economic damage numbers to a jury. In a nutshell, they believe that defense should present damages estimates to a jury to provide an anchor:

(Excerpt from trialbehavior.com)
Give jurors strong defense damage anchors

Because of the severity shift, it is essential for the defense to give reasonable defense damages anchors to jurors. It is of course often tough to argue both for zero liability and to argue damages, but research is quite clear that without a “low” anchor to balance the plaintiff demand, jurors will use the plaintiff demand as the focal point of their discussion and compromise and ultimately award a higher damage award than if given an alternate, lower defense number. That defense number must be reasonable, however, and based in some reality.

...... there is also a substantial body of psychological research on the importance of “anchors” when people are involved in an ambiguous situation where there are no external guidelines or benchmarks. My feeling is that there are effective ways to handle the contradictions. Failing offering a low number anchor in a situation where there is a good chance you will lose on liability seems too risky.

Since plaintiff numbers are often not based in reality, the defense can help defense-oriented and low-damages jurors considerably by giving a number or numbers that are clearly backed up by discussing the value of the money. How much would this money really buy of whatever it is the plaintiff needs? Tie the amount to real-world expenditures and possibilities to help take it out of the realm of play and into the common sense worlds of bills and payments that jurors know.

For example, in a recent wrongful death case in which a mother died in a terrible accident, leaving behind minor children, we recommended the defense argue for an award of $1 million each for the minor children, explaining that an excellent college education would cost $50,000 a year, or $200,000, leaving the still large sum of $800,000 for a child to invest, start a business, and buy a house. Explain how compound interest works and show jurors the amount of interest that would grow in a conservatively invested $100,000 or $1,000,000. Talk about how much it would take to create a financial security plan—shift the language away from “damage awards” to discussions of how to meet the human needs of the plaintiff(s).

The complete article can be found @ ( http://www.trialbehavior.com/articles/Strategies%20for%20Minimizing%20Damages.htm)